Helen Copley and Vince Miranda

Thirty Years Ago Vince Miranda, king of the Pussycat Theaters, had blown into town and was visiting his new venture, the Backstage. It was past 9:30 p.m., time for the show, and Miranda was watching the entertainment. Then came an interruption: two customers waiting to be seated. Heads turned as publisher Helen Copley and mayoral aide Bob White hunted for a table in the darkened room. When the lights came up, White leaned over to Miranda, extended his hand, and introduced himself and his companion. But the anticipation of waiting for the visitors to turn to him must have tasted sweet. Copley's papers circumscribe Miranda's theater ads, and White's boss wants to condemn Miranda's properties. -- CITY LIGHTS: "TOP CAT,"Jeannette De Wyze, October 20, 1977

Twenty-Five Years Ago And this night he played pool with the Blue Jackets in a room at the Clairemont Bowl on Clairemont Drive, just east of Mission Bay. It was their territory; they were all from Clairemont Mesa -- not Linda Vista. The Italian-looking guy bumped into T.J.'s beer and knocked over the can. "Get the hell out of this pool room," T.J. said. He dropped his cue and it banged onto the floor and the room became quiet as the pool games stopped and all that could be heard was the clatter of falling bowling pins. -- "ONE STEP AHEAD OF THE DEVIL,"David Steinman, October 21, 1982

Twenty Years Ago According to syndicated columnist Joseph Sobran, Clarence Pendleton is probably the most hated man in Washington. If Pendleton's comments before the San Diego Libertarian Supper Club on October 13 are any indication, he doesn't mind that characterization at all. Pendleton is the chairman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and the former president of the San Diego Urban League. He may be known best for his opposition to affirmative action and for remarking that "comparable worth is probably the looniest idea since Looney Tunes." -- CITY LIGHTS: "MAN OF OPINION," Karl Keating, October 22, 1987

Fifteen Years Ago You might recognize the names of some of the kids in San Carlos at that time: Danny Alstadt, David Allen Lucas, Brenda Spencer. In 1975, Eagle Scout and straight-A student Alstadt hacked his mother, father, and sister to death with an axe and set fire to the family home to cover the crime. Lucas is now on death row for the mutilation murders of three women and a child in the late '70s and early '80s. Brenda Spencer took her new rifle one Monday morning in 1979 and killed two men and wounded eight children and a policeman on the grounds of Cleveland Elementary School, for which she is now in prison. -- "IN THE HIGH '70s," Mark Stephen Clifton, October 22, 1992

Ten Years Ago No, the cameras will not begin to roll and click until the arrival of Rudolph Edward Kos, priest and accused molester of altar boys. Kos had been dressed in shorts and a T-shirt and was sipping a gin and tonic by himself at a table in the back of the Loft, a gay bar in Hillcrest, it was reported by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "Kos was on his first drink when two officers -- a male and female dressed in plain clothes -- walked to his table, flashed their badges, and handcuffed him," the paper wrote. -- CITY LIGHTS: "THEY CUFFED THE PRIEST,"Tom Barbarie, October 23, 1997

Five Years Ago Many people comment about a San Diego sound taking form in the late '80s and early '90s, but a common sound is difficult to pinpoint.... Groups like Sub-Society, Socially Insecure, Funeral March, Pitchfork, who later became Rocket From the Crypt, Drive Like Jehu, Inch, and No Knife -- had grown up sharing equipment and rhythm sections and listening to each others' record collections. -- "REAL HARDCORE TRUE PUNK," Daniel Ridge, October 17, 2002